Punk rock mogul Joe Kuzemka markets Trenton to a new generation.
By Ron Shapella
Joe Kuzemka is the kind of guy who is always trying to help people find new ways to explore Trenton.
A Trenton native, Kuzemka, 40, is a graphic artist and — among other credits — the founder and creative director of Rockhopper Creative, a marketing and event management firm that has provided services for Sovereign Bank Arena, Trenton Downtown Association, DeLorenzo’s Pizza, and others.
He is also the driving force behind some of Trenton’s most popular public events, including Art All Night and the Punk Rock Flea Market.
You could say he’s someone who wears his heart on his sleeve. Of course, when he’s not sporting a sleeved shirt his passion for graphic art is still there for all to see. “Yeah,” he admits, “I am pretty heavily tattooed.” He then says he is also the kind of person who is always looking for new things to do and talks about his hopes for his hometown.
“I’m always trying to bring people in to Trenton to let them know about things to do and places to stay, and trying to bring Trenton back to its glory. My grandfather used to tell me how great Trenton was, and there are a lot of things to do in Trenton. He moved here from Scranton-Wilkes Barre in the 1940s and lived in North Trenton.
“As a kid who grew up in Trenton, I saw that a lot of the places he told me about are gone. But a lot of us have a vision and a hope that someday will come to fruition. My grandfather was my hero. Whenever I do something I hope that he’s seeing it and is proud of me. It makes me try to be a better person.”
His latest public event will be Sunday, September 20, when the Capital City Food Truck Battle rolls into town and sets up at the Rho Waterfront restaurant, next door to Arm and Hammer Park, the home of the Trenton Thunder.
Food trucks have become part of American popular culture, and readers of a certain age relied on them to provide nourishing flavors in the clutch outside college student centers. But for the Trenton entrepreneur it is way of adding another attraction to Trenton.
“Back in 2013 I started the Trenton Punk Rock flea market, and at the first flea market we had only two trucks and they sold out of food in two hours. When all that happened I decided to start the food truck battle. People will be able to vote for their favorite food truck. There will be a trophy designed by a Trenton-based artist,” says the former Mercer County Community College advertising design major and past president of the school’s Graphic Design Club.
Kuzemka says he grew up in south Trenton, on Lamberton Street, which is about as far south as the inhabited part Trenton goes. His mother and father, who formerly worked for New Jersey Network, are both now retired.
Kuzemka, who owns a home near Nottingham High School, close to the border of Trenton and Hamilton, is unmarried and has no kids. “That’s why I have so much time to work,” he says. In addition to his day job as senior graphic designer at the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, where he also helps run the marketing department, his three main projects “are the food truck battle and the punk rock flea market, and Art All Night,” where he is event director. He says the Trenton Downtown Association originally hired him to oversee marketing for Patriots Week, the end-of-year commemoration of the city’s indelible role in our nation’s founding.
“Artworks Trenton is kind of where I started in the city,” he says, speaking of the group that backs Art All Night. “That’s probably the group I’m most involved with. My approach is that if I have an idea I try to build it from the ground up.”
That was his approach with the Punk Rock Flea Market, which he says originally took its cue from a similar event in Philadelphia. The next one takes place November 8. “It’s at the Roebling Wire Works,” says Kuzemka. “I usually refer to it as the Historic Roebling Wire Works, or the machine shop. Most people know it as that. There’s so much there, it all depends what you want to get out of it. I wanted to bring in the punk rockers, which is who I grew up with. I try to bring together a lot of people who might never come together.”
That includes assembling a diverse group of vendors and “creating a micro-economy,” he says. Among the attractions will be glass-blowing, a freak show with fire and sword swallowing, and a punk rock cabaret homage to City Gardens, the former palace of all things punk and alternative that had its heyday on Calhoun Street in the 1980s and 1990s.
Before the first punk rock flea market, Kuzemka says, he “expected 400 people” — but over 2,000 people came, in a space that was not designed to accommodate that many. “Once that took off and did so well I realized I had lightning in a bottle.”
“Punk rock has a DIY ethic, but if you come to the punk rock flea market you’ll see all sorts of handmade clothing and a tremendous amount of artwork. It’s a curated flea market. There’s something there for everyone. That’s one of the things I celebrate about the flea market — the diversity is so strong,” he says.
The event also has a cost: upward towards $15,000 to plan, pay for rentals, pay for staff, market and advertise, and manage. The event’s $4 admission and vendor charge of $60 for a six-foot table support the operations.
As with the Food Truck Battle, trucks that participate also pay a fee and Kuzemka says he obtains all required city permits. Admission to the Food Truck Battle is $5, with 10 percent of all gate proceeds going to Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Kuzemka speaks of City Gardens nostalgically, saying he started going there at age 12 (and later published and distributed the music fanzine “Nevermore”). But nostalgia turns to longing when he says he never saw the Ramones, the legendary punk rock quartet that played there frequently enough to almost qualify as city residency — but never played an all-ages show.
“That’s one of my white whales,” he says. Indeed, the logo for the Punk Rock Flea Market greatly resembles the Ramones’ logo, which, in turn, borrowed heavily from the images that emblazon U.S. currency.
That “something for everyone” Punk Rock vibe is also part of Kuzemka’s design for the September Food Truck Battle. “I currently got 16 trucks confirmed,” he says. “My ultimate goal will be 20 trucks. We have everything from gourmet tater tots, Puerto Rican barbecue, we have traditional barbecue as well, lobster rolls, tacos, vegan hoagies gourmet macaroni and cheese, brick oven pizza, fried chicken, hamburgers.
“The food truck battle will have live music on the back deck,” Kuzemka says. “We’ll have children’s activities, beer gardens, and a pop-up farmer’s market with organic and traditional farm produce.”
These days it seems you can’t be a Trenton group putting on your own homegrown event, without having another homegrown group putting on an identical event in direct competition. That happened earlier in the spring when Trenton suddenly found itself with dueling pork roll festivals. Following suit, there will be a separate food truck festival the day before Kuzemka’s, in the Trenton Social parking lot on South Broad Street.
But Kuzemka takes it in stride and says, “I look at myself as having two full-time jobs. There’s not a lot of down time for me in my life. I sort of thrive in that environment.”
Capital City Food Truck Battle, Rho Waterfront, 50 Riverview Plaza, Trenton (next to Arm and Hammer Stadium), Sunday, September 20, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. $5 (with gate proceeds going to Trenton Area Soup Kitchen). For more updates and details, visit capcityfoodtruckbattle.com.
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